The specification for CreateReport() provided by Microsoft is inaccurate, as far as I can tell. In c# it won’t matter, but it does in Powershell, due to the oddities in how Powershell handles empty arrays.
The specification says that CreateReport() will return an empty array if there are no errors or warnings. I believe that in SQL Server 2008 it actually returns a null. Maybe later I’ll find a flaw in my thinking…but maybe not!
Look at this code:
One of the biggest gotchas for people new to Powershell is the handling of null, empty arrays, and single-element arrays. If you come from another language such as c# you’ll be shocked. And even for an experienced Powershell writer, the behavior can lead to ugly bugs.
Other people have covered this topic before. Here’s a good discussion by Keith Hill. But I wanted a short reference with examples of the strange (to many people) behavior, so I’m writing this today somewhat for my own benefit. But maybe someone else will find it useful.
Bret Hill recently published an article on how to localize a Reporting Services report. This is an important article because of its completeness. If you’ve ever tried to localize a report for a controlled, load-balanced web site, you’ve probably spent a lot of time with Mr. Google, because you have to read a bit here and a bit there to get all the pieces of information you need.
Surrounding The Code 